Close friends and family have bid farewell to Dame Deborah James during an intimate private service in west London. McFly star Tom Fletcher and wife Giovanna, Lorraine Kelly and Gaby Roslin were among the attendees at St Mary’s Church in Barnes on Wednesday afternoon.
The podcast host and mother of two, who became known as Bowelbabe, her social media handle, died last month aged 40 after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016. The service saw husband Sebastien deliver a eulogy while their children Hugo and Eloise both read poems.
Family friend and classically trained jazz singer Natalie Rushdie, who is married to novelist Salman Rushdie’s son Zafar, sang Tell Me It’s Not True from the musical Blood Brothers. Cellist Charles Watt played music from Gabriel Faure, while family friend Sarah Mountford read an extract from Ecclesiastes.
